Narrating the correlation of elephants as related to their import, groupings, breeding and transfers,
along with other elephant related topics.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Emmen Zoo Birth

The Emmen Zoo in the Netherlands celebrated the birth of a male calf on February 6, the second to be born in the outdoor exhibit with the herd. The calf was the fourth for the thirty year old Burmese cow Htoo Yin Aye. It was sired by the zoo’s breeding bull Radza. The 44 year old male arrived at Emmen in 2003 from Latvia. Since Radza's arrival, he has sired twelve calves. The new calf brought the zoo’s herd size to thirteen, seven of which are males.

Newborn male calf, Dierenpark Emmen, Feburary 2011.
Photo Courtesy of Dierenpark Emmen / Wijbren Landman


Records
Radza (Radsh, Mysore), Male Asian, SB 6801
1967 - Birth, India
1968 - Stuttgart-Wilhelma Zoo, Germany
1972 - Circus Durov, Russia
20 Apr 1974 - Riga Zoo, Latvia
04 Oct 2003 - Dierenpark Emmen, Netherlands
>> Radza at Elefanten-Fotolexikon.eu

Htoo Yin Aye, Female Asian, SB 8108
05 Aug 1981 - Birth, Burma
Jun 1988 - van der Brink, Burma
27 Jun 1988 - Dierenpark Emmen, Netherlands
>> Htoo Yin Aye at Elefanten-Fotolexikon.eu

Mong Tine, Male Asian
06 Feb 2011 - Birth, Dierenpark Emmen, Netherlands

For Additional Information:
>> "Emmen Zoo Birth," Elephant-News.com, 02/10/2011

>> Dierenpark Emmen at Olifantenhuis.com

>> "Olifantje geboren," DierenparkEmmen.nl, 02/06/2011

>> "Emmen Zoo News," ZooChat

Radza, Dierenpark Emmen's breeding bull, 2008
Photo Courtesy of Martijn Fabrie, Netherlands

4 comments:

  1. How are the elephants at Emmen Zoo related? In a social perspective. Who came first, second, etc, where do they meet for the first time, are some originating from the same logger company?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your question, John.

    The majority of the Emmen Zoo's original breeding herd was imported from Burma by van der Brink in June 1988. This group consisted of a bull and seven cows. van der Brink, an importer from the Netherlands, was responsible for importing nearly thirty elephants from the logging region and is credited for supplying Europe with a significant amount of elephant breeding material. More information and a list of elephants for which he claimed responsibility can be found at Elephant.se.
    >> http://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=322

    The imported group of eight animals joined the zoo's existing herd of three female elephants. Of the Burmese imports, only two females remain in Emmen. The remaining group has been dispersed to other facilities under breeding recommendations.

    The Burmese male imported in 1988, named Nang Thein, sired a remarkable number of calves in the Netherlands. He was responsible for the birth of fifteen elephants at Dierenpark Emmen, of which all but three still survive today. It is also remarkable to note that all but three of these births were males - eighty percent.

    In September 2003, Nang Thein was transferred out of the Netherlands to the Prague Zoo. He was replaced by the bull Radza from the Riga Zoo in Latvia. The goal was this move was to ensure genetic diversity in the Emmen Zoo herd and to prevent inbreeding. Following his arrival, eleven more elephant births have occurred at Dierenpark Emmen, bringing the total number of newborns to twenty five at the location. Similar to the situation with calves sired by Nang Thein, only two of the eleven births were female – over eighty percent. All but two of his sired calves still survive as well.

    Emmen's current herd of Asian elephants consists of thirteen elephants - seven males and six females. All but Radza and two of the cows imported from Burma have been captive born at the zoo.

    Jonas Livet provides a nice timeline of Dierenpark Emmen's elephant arrivals and removals at his website AsianElephant.net
    >> http://www.asianelephant.net/emmen/emmen.htm

    ReplyDelete
  3. Update 02/13/2011:

    "The little elephant is named 'Mong Tine' what means 'Storm' in Burmese. The day he was born was a very stormy day." //Gerald Postma

    ReplyDelete
  4. Radza took a tumble on Sunday and fell in the dry mote around the habitat. He broke one of his tusks and has a big abrasion on his trunk. No further injuries were reported in the Dutch news.

    ReplyDelete

I eagerly anticipate associating with new individuals with an interest or history in elephants, elephant history and elephant record keeping. If you have further information regarding the animals or locations questioned in the article, please leave a comment or message me in an effort to complete their records for elephant historians.